Marc Robillard - Left London

There is magic in music.  In what other endeavor can you subject people who don’t love you to poetic, emotional and personal thoughts and get them to listen?  Without magic there is no music and without music there is no magic.

The magic starts when a songwriter, singer, instrumentalist scratches out a few songs about life on the back of an envelope.  The songs express an inner-vision from the writer’s experience that shaped the words written and the melody later employed.

Or, the magic may come when a musician strums a progression, plays a memorable lick, beats a compelling rhythm, or finds an intriguing tone or sound.  Some artists fit words to music.  Some  fit music to words. Some do both.

It is not, yet, necessarily “music.” Now, the artist may choose accompaniment - instruments, percussion, and harmonies. Today, technical magic is needed to make songs into music.  The songs must be produced - the tone of the instruments, the recording technique and sound processing all must be planned and executed.  The technical arts are applied.  The result may be mixed, re-mixed, mastered, remastered, scribed, formatted, pressed, compressed, expanded, sparkled, equalized, etc., before we, the public, ever hear the final product.  Music is not only built with many varieties of magic it can become magic itself.

Take, for example, singer, songwriter Marc Robillard and his new CD “Left London,”  scheduled for release on March 29, 2011. Robillard is a Canadian born, Los Angeles-based singer songwriter and this is his second album inspired from his time living in London.  The songs are all Robillard.  The technical magic came from Andrew Bojanic and Liz Hooper of The Wizardz of Oz.   These “wizards” have also worked with Vanessa Hudgens, Avril Lavigne, Britney Spears and Krystal Meyers. Here, they add a “pop sheen” to Robillard, an alternative rock balladeer in the vein of David Gray. The results are phenomenal. 

The words and feelings in the music are introspective.  Just the names of the songs are illustrative - “So Much More,” “Crazy,” ”Fall Away,” “Bleed,” “The Worst Day Of My Life,” “Conclude,” “Okay,” “EverStop,” “Without You,” “Ghost,” “Unfold,” “Love Song,” “Contagious.”  Based solely on the titles, without production, most of this stuff would be considered dark poetry.  (We have got to say Marc your London experience must have been one hellish event!)  No doubt Robillard has a great voice. (You probably heard part of “So Much More” on a recent Sun Chips TV commercial.) Yet, when the wizards get a hold of it, orchestrate it, mix it, produce it, and give it a pop sheen, it becomes accessible alternative rock music and it is transformational.  There is emotion and there is substance to the words and to the music.  

Bojanic and Hooper deserve credit as great magicians.  They apply their craft in a way that makes Robillard’s lyrical songs music.  There is magic in this music and the music itself is magical.  Listen and, if you play your cards right, I think you can even hear the wizards pull a rabbit out of a hat.

- Old School


Buy here mp3: Left London